“Great, you stay left, I stay right and we won’t talk.”
I roll my eyes;she can’t be this obtuse. She has to know that we have to communicate and interact in order to be successful.
The whistle blows, and Rhea, one of the alternate captains, picks up the puck with her stick, gliding towards us. I can see Taylor from the corner of my eye. She’s locked in, not looking at me, and I’m wondering what on earth I’ve signed myself up for. Rhea dekes right towards Taylor before arcing back to me. I shift, rushing her as Taylor somehow gets tangled up in my stick.
Where the fuck did she come from?
We’re stuck twisting around for a second as Rhea tries to get around us. In our flailing, my stick gets knocked out and knocks the puck away. Rhea seems so confused that she also trips up and falls to the side. I finally get myself untangled from Taylor and shove her away to go help Rhea up.
“What was that?” she asks through gritted teeth when I lower my hand to her.
I shake my head. “You know her better than I do. If you can figure that out, I’d really appreciate it.”
She sighs, cursing under her breath before sheskates off. She skates towards Brynn and Coach Ross, both of whom have frowns on their faces. My heart sinks into my stomach, and I wouldn’t be shocked if the performance rots away any good qualities that I have shown for them to extend a contract.
I whip my head back around to Taylor, who’s standing on the other side of the rink, tapping her stick lightly against the ice. I wonder if she knows how much she’s got my career in her palm right now.
Skating over, I bend to grab my stick and reach her quickly. Her green eyes flick towards me before looking away. An attempt to snub me.
Well, it isn’t going to work.
“I would have thought that as a third-year pro hockey player, you’d know how to skate without crashing into your teammate.”
She shifts her weight from one foot to the other but says nothing.
“I thought you said to stay on your side, so how the fuck did you end up on the left with your stick between my skates?”
“She was going down the centre,” she he finally says, spitting it out with a vitriol that would have had me jolting back if I weren’t so incensed with her inability to skate.
“You can’t claim the centre. We have to communicate. We’ve only played against each other, Taylor.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t be here,” she glowersat me, and I shrug.
“It’s too bad because I’m here now. So you have to tell me left, centre or right so that I know where you are and we aren’t getting tangled up. I don’t want to be near you any more than I have to,” I retort.
She rolls her eyes. “Do you understand?” I ask again, watching her release a breath through her nostrils. They flare, and her eyes flash an angry moody green before nodding curtly and skates off to her side of the ice.
I turn around, steeling myself for another round. Brynn gives me a small thumbs up, which has my stomach stop curdling. Coach Ross looks at the two of us, and has another player ready at the blue line. I’m skating quickly to get set up, watching Taylor in the corner of my eye as the whistle blows. The player starts fast, heading straight towards me, looking like she’s going to skate through me, and I’m skating towards her.
“Centre!” Taylor shouts, making me smile as I move closer to the player.
“Left!” I shout back, skating past the girl in a twirl and stripping the puck from her. “Forward!” I shout, watching Taylor start skating faster as I pass it up. The puck connects with a solid clink, and she takes it over the blue line. The whistle blows again as the team hits their sticks on the boards at our success.
Ross looks at her clipboard and then back at us. “Again, Andersen, grab the puck.” Taylor comes back to her side of the ice and we set up, ready for another round of drills.
After the successful attempt at showing how I can work well with the woman who hates my guts, I’m still on the ice, taking in a deep breath before I go into the locker room and get ready to go home and sleep.
I’m absolutely shattered.
The only other person on the ice is Taylor, and she’s hitting shots into the empty net like she’s mad at every single one. I want to get to know her better. I want to be able to communicate with her on the ice without both of us being angry at each other. Or frustrated, or,shit,I don’t know.
I keep thinking that the crush that I have on her is finally dissipating, but then she smiles at Brynn and Winnie; or she laughs and her whole body is thrown back; or her face crinkles in disgust at an ingredient on the lunch menu… And somehow I’m even more smitten?
But also exasperated.
I feel so fucking confused.
I skate to her, and watch as her slap shot dies down. She’s low on pucks and will have to acknowledge me soon. “We played well out there,” I say. My voice is the loudest thing other than the pucks missing the net.
